On May 6, 2009, all parties in the Ontario Legislature voted unanimously to approve an amended Bill 152: The Poverty Reduction Act, 2009. The Bill was originally introduced by government on February 25, 2009. Two dozen community activists recommended improvements to the legislation over two days of hearings in April. ISAC staff presented a . …
Poverty Reduction Strategy
Social assistance reform vital part of poverty reduction strategy
Ontario finally has a poverty reduction strategy. It’s about time.
For years, anti-poverty activists have been pleading with government to take poverty seriously. Teachers have talked about how poorly children do in school when they are hungry and distracted. Health practitioners have listed the ways poverty makes people sick and costs the health-care system millions of dollars. Low-income people have insisted that they should not be blamed for their poverty, but rather that the root causes of poverty such as low wages, lack of child care, discrimination and low levels of training and education should be addressed.
Breaking the Cycle: Ontario’s First Five-Year Poverty Reduction Strategy
On December 4, 2008, the Ontario government released Breaking the Cycle: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. In this Strategy, the province has committed to reducing child and family poverty in Ontario by 25% in the next five years. The Strategy also outlines a number of steps that the government will take to meet that commitment. The …
Rethinking the role of Social Assistance within a Poverty Reduction Strategy
It’s time for a paradigm shift in how we think about social assistance, its objectives and its role. Social assistance programs must incorporate an explicit objective to move people out of poverty, by offering meaningful support opportunities for those who can work and ensuring that those who cannot are able to live with dignity.
